275 – 2019 Year End News & Manga Review
Welcome to the final episode of Manga Machinations for 2019! Seamus is back, which means all the hosts are ready to discuss all the news stories from this year before sharing their personal top 3 manga, honorable mentions, and worst manga of the year!!!
Continue readingThe Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms
A manga about anthropomorphized animals who attend a school to learn magic.
Man, this one was such a disappointment. I love Nagabe‘s The Girl from the Other Side so I was looking forward to reading this.
Nagabe‘s art work shines in the designs of the various anthropomorphized characters. They have a similar but contrasting style to Paru Itagaki‘s BEASTARS characters. I loved the framing of panels and subtle touches like adding an animal index at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately I kinda hated all the stories.
There is a chapter about a romance between a teacher and student. As a teacher myself, I will tell you that nothing makes me roll my eyes faster than seeing this cliche in manga. It’s incredibly stupid. Another chapter had a creepy crow who manipulated others so he could claim the attention of his beautiful peacock friend. Then there was also a chapter about young vampire bats kissing and it felt like I was watching children exploring sexuality and that really grossed me out(though to be fair there isn’t any indication about their actually age).
Basically, lots of the story content seemed to line up with bad troupes of older BL and I really hated those parts. I did like the story between a red deer and his cold blooded lizard roommate because it felt devoid of those troupes. But I had high expectation for this book and I feel let down.
2/5 stars on the Morgana scale for me. It’s available in English from Seven Seas Entertainment.
~dakazu
Land Lock
A manga about death row inmates who’s airplane crash land on a snowy mountain peak of a remote island and they must try to survive amongst each other and strange hallucinations involving green butterflies.
We’ve discussed this on an episode of Darfox Dabbles.
This is not a very good manga. The setup feels like a cheap knockoff of Lost and Ai Odahara‘s art work is pretty average. The only reason I read it was because it was one of the first vertically formatted manga from Jump+ and in full color like the manhwa it’s inspired from. Unfortunately it didn’t do anything unique with that format so there’s barely any difference found in this traditional print version I checked out. There are other series on Manga PLUS like The Vertical World that are using the vertical format much better.
~dakazu
Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World
A manga about a young human witch who travels around the demon world with her demon salesman friend, Simon.
We’ve discussed this series on a recent episode.
Ever since Morgana talked about this book I’ve wanted to read it. Well lucky for me because I got a copy for Christmas. This might be the most wholesome manga I’ve read this year. I love Nicola and the fun adventures she had shopping at the Black Bazaar, hunting for mushrooms in the forest, or avoiding ghosts in a haunted hotel. Asaya Miyanaga‘s art work is so cute and detailed. I love the choice of sepia tone ink by Seven Seas Entertainment. It gives everything a nice warm feeling.
Love this series. You can get your copy from Seven Seas Entertainment today and I highly recommend it.
~dakazu
Kyuyaku Mother Ghoul
A prototype series to Mother Ghoul.
I guess Kiku Sugawara did this series first and it was originally called Holy Holy. This is only 2 volumes and feels like a smaller scale Mother Ghoul without a real ending. I’m glad that I read it because it fleshes out the backstory for certain characters who appeared in Mother Ghoul without any explanation. But I don’t think you need to read this before Mother Ghoul.
~dakazu
Poco’s Udon World
A manga about a man who returns to his udon shop home after his father passes away and befriends a young child who is actually a transforming raccoon.
Love this so much. This is a wonderful example of a story about paternal love that doesn’t have any grooming bullshit involved. The relationship between Sota and Poco is nothing but love. Caring for Poco helps Sota reconnect with people from his past and open new doors. It’s incredibly touchy-feely emotional writing by Nodoka Shinomaru and their gentle art style matches. The bittersweet ending was perfect as well.
There’s no official English edition but there is an anime of this and I highly encourage you to check it out.
~dakazu
Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan
A manga about stepsisters who learn to bond by cooking food together.
Very cute series. I like the dynamic between the older sillier sister and the more reserved younger sister. It was heartwarming to see them open up to each other and become closer, all the while enjoying some delicious meals together!
~dakazu
274 – 2019 Year End Anime Review with Manga Mavericks
2019 is coming to a close and it’s time to do our annual wrap up! This year we’re splitting our Year End Review between anime and manga. So for part 1 we’re joined by LumRanmaYashaand Colton from the Manga Mavericks podcast to talk about our top anime of 2019!!!
Continue readingMuhoutou
A prequel to Jisatsutou. The Japanese government exiles convicts facing execution to a remote lawless island to fend for themselves.
I really wish Kouji Mori didn’t start this manga. Making a prequel to Jisatsutou seems really silly because we already know what’s going to happen. I’m not sure I care enough about our protagonist who is an innocent man trying to survive against all these other criminals. I really feels like Mori is just rehashing all the beats of Jisatsutou minus the suicidal youths, which was the most interesting part.
I’d rather Mori kept working on something totally new like his Sousei no Taiga.
~dakazu
Gannibal
A manga about a police officer who gets stationed at a remote village in the country where the residents might all be cannibals.
We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.
Good horror manga. Masaaki Ninomiya has a realistic art style that works well with horror. I noticed that he would have panels with closeups of peoples’ mouths and teeth. It all added to the suspicion the cop has for the townsfolk when he finds bite marks on a corpse in the woods. The residents themselves seem to be on edge and slyly imply that he should mind his own business or he might meet the fate of his predecessor who went mad and died. The fact that he’s moved here with his family and young daughter make matters oh so much worse.
Horror stories with fantastical monsters usually don’t get to me but this manga made me sweat. While crazy cannibals are a common troupe of horror they’re way more scary because it seems like a remote possibility. Humans can be cruel and this series effectively captures that fear.
~dakazu